TY - JOUR
T1 - Metals in horseshoe crab eggs from Delaware Bay, USA
T2 - temporal patterns from 1993 to 2012
AU - Burger, Joanna
AU - Tsipoura, Nellie
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments We thank L. Niles, M. Dey, K. Clark, R. Loveland, and members of the ASMFC for discussions about horseshoe crabs. We especially thank M. Gochfeld and A. Spry for logistical help. This research was partially funded by the Nongame and Endangered Species Program of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) through the Department of Energy (AI # DE-FC01-95EW55084; DE-FG 26-00NT 40938), and NIEHS (P30ES05022, and DuPont Clear into the Future). The results, conclusions, and interpretations reported herein are the sole responsibility of the authors and should not in any way be interpreted as representing the views of the funding agencies.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
PY - 2014/8/31
Y1 - 2014/8/31
N2 - The health of horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) eggs is important not only to maintain horseshoe crab populations, but because they are a resource for higher trophic levels, such as fish and shorebirds. We examined the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury, and selenium in the eggs of horseshoe crabs from Delaware Bay (between New Jersey and Delaware, USA) in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, and 2012 to determine if there were significant temporal changes and if levels appear to pose a health risk to the crabs themselves, or to predators that consume them. All metal levels declined in horseshoe crab eggs between 1994 and 2012, although the declines were much less consistent for lead and chromium than that for mercury and cadmium. Levels of contaminants found in these eggs are well below those known to cause adverse effects in the crabs themselves or to organisms that consume them, such as migrating shorebirds.
AB - The health of horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) eggs is important not only to maintain horseshoe crab populations, but because they are a resource for higher trophic levels, such as fish and shorebirds. We examined the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury, and selenium in the eggs of horseshoe crabs from Delaware Bay (between New Jersey and Delaware, USA) in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, and 2012 to determine if there were significant temporal changes and if levels appear to pose a health risk to the crabs themselves, or to predators that consume them. All metal levels declined in horseshoe crab eggs between 1994 and 2012, although the declines were much less consistent for lead and chromium than that for mercury and cadmium. Levels of contaminants found in these eggs are well below those known to cause adverse effects in the crabs themselves or to organisms that consume them, such as migrating shorebirds.
KW - Delaware Bay
KW - Eggs
KW - Heavy metals
KW - Horseshoe crab
KW - Mercury
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U2 - 10.1007/s10661-014-3901-8
DO - 10.1007/s10661-014-3901-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 25015345
AN - SCOPUS:84925545669
SN - 0167-6369
VL - 186
SP - 6947
EP - 6958
JO - Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
JF - Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
IS - 10
ER -